Committee to award Nigerian writers N100,000 for reviewing any of Ken Saro Wiwa’s works

Organisers of the Lagos Book and Art Festival (LABAF) have promised to award Nigerian writers between the ages of 18 and 41 a prize money of N100,000 if their reviews of any one of the five works of late writer and environmental activist, Ken Saro Wiwa, is adjudged the best.

The announcement was made by Toyin Akinosho, general secretary, Committee for Relevant Arts and organisers of LABAF.

She said the competition is opened to “those who were either not born, or were just teenagers or at most aged 21, at the time of the death of this Nigerian literary icon”.

Writers who want to participate are expected to submit a review of not more than 1,000 words of either Sozaboy, A Forest of Flowers, Adaku and other Stories, Prisoners of Jebs, or a joint review of Basi and Company and Transistor Radio on or before 5pm on November 6, 2015.

Entries should be typewritten and sent to tonikan11@gmail.com and it would be judged by Toni Kan (author of the Nights of the Creaking Bed).

On the competition, Jahman Anikulapo, Programme Chairman of the Committee For Relevant Art(CORA) said: "The competition does three things, it serves to improve on the human infrastructure of reading; there cannot be a robust literary/literacy subculture, or a book market, without a vibrant review culture. The grounds on which conversations of culture stands, in the Nigerian arts landscape today, is shaky"

He added that, the competition "Intends to sow seeds in the area of getting whole communities, as opposed to writers alone, to share in the joy of reading."

The theme of this year's edition of the Lagos Book and Art festival  which will kick off on November 13, is dedicated and intends to memorialise Mr Saro Wiwa.

Late Kenule "Ken" Beeson Saro Wiwa was a Nigerian writer, television producer, environmental activist, and winner of the Right Livelihood Award and the Goldman Environmental Prize.

He was a member of the Ogoni people, an ethnic minority in Nigeria whose homeland, Ogoniland, has been targeted for crude oil extraction since the 1950s.

Saro-Wiwa led a nonviolent campaign against environmental degradation of the land and at the peak of his non-violent campaign, he was hanged in 1995 by the military dictatorship of General Sani Abacha.

SEE ALSO: Sam Dede speaks on Ken Saro-Wiwa

His execution provoked international outrage and resulted in Nigeria's suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations for over three years.

RELATED: Rivers Assembly approves renaming RIVPOLY after Ken Saro-Wiwa